"Wake up, Ike." Zac softly shook his oldest brother. "It's time. Come on."

"What?" Isaac rubbed his sleepy eyes and pushed Zac's hand off his shoulder.

"It's Christmas, stupid. Come on!" Zac screeched.

"Shut up Kathie Lee! Ow!" Tay shot up and smashed the top of his head on the bottom of Ike's bunkbed. "What the..."

"Great! You're up!" Zac hopped down from the edge of the bed and grabbed Taylor's hand. The weary and hurting boy moaned as Zac pulled him out from under his covers and onto Zac's still unmade trundle bed down below.

"What time is it?" he managed to choke out.

"Um, 6:30."

"Really?" Taylor's eyes lit up. "It's that late? Let's go get Mom and Dad. Come on Ike, time to get up." He stood up and gently patted Isaac's head.

"Ay, carumba!" Zac yelled as he and Tay flew through the air and slammed down on their parents bed. "Get up peoples!"

Taylor scrambled up to his startled father and started to pull at the covers. "Taylor, I thought we had a 7:30 rule," he moaned.

"That's not applicable this year."

"And why not?" Walker managed to open one eye.

"Because this year we might get the...um, I better not jinx it."

"How old are you, Tay?"

"Old enough to know that the early bird gets the worm. Now come on." Tay tugged some more on the covers. By this time, Diana had given up and had already grabbed her robe. Zac was impatiently jumping up and down on the edge of the bed.

"Mommy! Let's go!" Avery screamed. She and Jessica had joined the circus in their parent's room. Even Mackie was giggling from all the excitement.

"Fine, fine. I don't know what you kids expect to be getting this year," Diana said with a smile. "I thought all you wanted was underwear."

The group ran into the living room, the kids in front, the parents sluggishly following.

"Where is child no. 1?" Walker said as he took a count of the kids feverishly grasping at the scattered presents.

"He is being 17 years old," Tay said as he shook a box.

"Ah, of course. Somebody go get him because we are not starting without everybody here."

"Man, he is always doing this." Taylor left the room in search of his older brother.

"Ikey. Oh, Ikey." He poked his head inside the bedroom but found Isaac's bed empty. "Not in here. Let's try the next most likely place. The bathroom." Sure enough the bathroom door was shut and the light was on. Taylor pounded on the door. "Ikey, we are waiting for you!" he yelled in the highest-pitched and most annoying voice he could muster.

"Um, just a sec, 'kay." His voice was shaking.

"Ike, are you okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need a second, alright."

"I'm coming in, okay."

"Taylor, I asked..." Before he could finish his objection, Taylor stepped inside the bathroom.

"Are you alright?" He found Isaac sitting on the floor of the bathroom, his eyes red. "Gosh, what happened." He sat next to him and shut the door with his foot.

"It's stupid."

"It can't be that stupid if you're so upset." He couldn't remember the last time he saw his big brother cry.

Isaac tried to gather himself and he took a deep breath. "It was just a stupid dream, that's all. I'm fine."

"What? What was it about?"

"Nothing important."

"Ike, come on."

"It's just that sometimes I feel...all of this on my shoulders and..."

"What was the dream about?"

Ike sighed. "Just that I failed. That's all. I failed. Stupid, huh. My God, I'm freakin' crying over this. I'm such a wimp." He tried to smile as he wiped his eyes with his t-shirt.

"You're not gonna fail. And you're not a wimp."

"Why does something that I love so much have to be so hard. It's just that now that we've had this break I've been thinking a lot. I've had time to think and it's just all catching up to me. Everything."

"I don't understand. Things are going great."

"I know. That's what's so stupid. But what if they don't stay that way? What if we lose what we have? What if they never take us seriously? What if I mess up?"

"Don't do that to yourself. You can't think like that. Just try to enjoy things now. What happens in the future is up to how hard we work."

"Gosh, it's different for you, Tay. Can't you see that?"

"No, I can't." He tried to read into Isaac, only to find that he couldn't.

"You're the freakin' star."

"What?!"

"Come on, you know you are. You seem to know that you're gonna be fine because everybody is telling you that you will be. But me. Nobody is telling me that I'm the star, that I'm the one who can make it on my own."

"You're not making sense. Besides, you're not going it alone. We're a group remember? We're brothers. I can't do things without you. Who would I look up to? Who would I follow?"

Isaac couldn't help but be surprised by his little brother's comments. Taylor had never told him to his face that he looked up to him. "Thanks."

"I'm totally serious, Ike. Gosh, you can do anything. I would give so much to have a little of your confidence."

"Excuse me? Who is the wimp sobbing in the bathroom?" Isaac laughed.

"No, I mean. Look at the way you are with people. You can just walk up to somebody and talk to them. I can't do that. When you're in a group you're the loudest one. I'm the quietest. If it wasn't for the band, I don't know how many people would know I was even in the room. I can't just say stuff like you do. I wish I could do that."

The two sat for a moment saying nothing. "They're probably waiting for us," Isaac finally said.

"Yeah. I'm sure Avery is ready to strangle us by now."

After Isaac washed his face the two headed into the living room together.

"Well, it's about time!" Zac yelled.

"Calm down, Zac. The presents aren't going anywhere." Isaac sat down on the couch and stared at the array of gifts that were now randomly strewn across the floor.

"Isaac, your eyes are all red," his mother commented.

"Yeah," Tay blurted. "I sprayed hairspray in his eyes."

"What?" Diana grabbed Ike's head and started to examine his eyes. "Why would you do such a thing, Taylor?"

"I didn't do it on purpose. Um, it just happened. We were, um..." He paused and scanned the room for a good white lie. "We were trying to kill a bug in the bathroom and we couldn't find the bug spray so we figured we would Finesse him to death. And the spray kinda got away from me. Oops." Taylor shrugged his shoulders innocently. Isaac tried to pull away from his mother's probing hands.

"You used up all the hair spray on a bug?"

"It was a big bug." Taylor motioned with his hands how "big" his fictitious bug was.

"Yeah, Mom. It was huge. You would be glad we slaughtered it," Isaac commented.

"Alright then." She turned her attention back to the impatient kids on the floor. Avery stared at the awaiting gift in her hands trying to gather all of her will power not to rip it open. "Who is Santa this year?"

"Taylor is," said Jessica.

"No I'm not." Taylor wasn't too interested in spending the entire morning scrambling around the tree to find gifts for other people.

"I'll be Santa!" Zac jumped up and grabbed his Santa hat. He placed it on his head and began bouncing around and ho-hoing.

"Zac, did you remember to take your medicine today?" Isaac joked.

"Okay, present number one! It's for...um...it's for...I can't find the tag!"

"Gimme it." Taylor tried to snatch the gift.

"No, no! Since it has no tag, I as Santa get to keep it."

"Not unless you want Avery's new Ballet doll, Zac. It's from me to Avery. I forgot to label it." Isaac grabbed the gift and handed it to Avery.

"Aw, junk Ike. Now I know what it is. Thank you, though!" She grinned at her big brother as she ripped open the present and proceeded to tear into the box.

"Who's next?" Zac crawled around the tree to find an interesting gift. "Ah ha! Here's one to Isaac from Santa!"

"Oh, Santa. Okay then. Gimme it." Zac threw the gift over his shoulder and scanned for another one.

"Zac, stop throwing the presents," his mother warned.

"Where are my presents? Geez, here's like 2000 for Taylor and another million for Jessica and a gigabillion for Mackie and Avery. But no, none for poor old me."

"We decided to shun you this year Zac," his dad said from behind the video camera.

Zac got up and stuck his face in the camera. "I wouldn't be too surprised by that." Then he squished his face into the funkiest cortortion he could manage.

"Are you really gonna want to see that later on video?"

"Why sure Dad. It will remind me of this oh, so special moment."

"Zac, if you don't hurry up then I'm just going to get my own gifts." Taylor grabbed a large box with his name on it. "To Tay from Zac. So, Zac, you actually shopped this year instead of making us all tie-dye t-shirts, huh?"

"Hey, those were awesome shirts."

"Yes, they showed your true love for the color pink."

"I told you that it was the only color we had left. Besides, it's the thought that counts." Zac gave Tay his patented puppy dog look.

"Okay, okay. Yes, they were awesome," Tay conceeded. "Now, what did you do this year?" He ripped the wrapping paper and opened the box. Inside was another box. "Oh, funny Zac." Taylor opened the next box and inside was yet another smaller box.

Zac started to roll on the ground, giggling. Taylor kept opening box after box. Soon the floor was covered with boxes and Taylor held in his hand a tiny velvet case. "Zac, what did you do," his mother said, trying to control her laughter.

"You didn't do this with my gift, did you?" Isaac asked.

Zac gave him a sly smile. "Oh, but didn't I?" He let out an evil laugh. "So, open it, Tay."

Taylor lifted the lid of the case. Inside was a tiny silver musical note with the letter 'T' inscripted on the back. "Oh, man Zac, thanks. This is cool." Taylor removed his chokers and place the tiny charm next to his crosses.

"That's not your whole present. I also got you this really awesome remote control plane. Oops. Kinda ruined the surprise there."

"Oh, my gosh! Tay has a neck!" Isaac yelled at the sight of Taylor's bare neck.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny." Tay placed the chokers back around his neck.

The rest of the morning was spent opening gifts and sitting around the tree. By noon, the guy's room was filled with presents, including boxes of legos, new video games, clothes and more.

"I have a question, Dad." Zac sat at the kitchen table watching his father fix the stuffing for dinner that night.

"What?"

"I thought that we were going to get...um...you know those...um..."

"What is that, Zac?" His father faced him, smiling.

"Well, it rhymes with, um, kurt-mike."

"Kurt-mike? Now what is that?" Walker couldn't stop smiling at his son's lack of subtlety.

"Dirt bike, okay! Dirt bike. What happened to the dirt bikes?"

"Mortercycles? Dirt Bikes? I don't remember you wanting that?"

"Dad!"

"Let's just say that we are going shopping tomorrow. Can't say where. But we're going shopping."

"Yes! Woo hoo! Thanks Dad!" Zac grabbed his father and hugged him around his waist. Zac ran out of the kitchen screaming. "Guys! We're getting them. I told ya so!"

From the guys' room their father heard shouts of 'Yeah' and 'Told you so.'

Taylor took a breather from the excitement. Relatives were arriving for Christmas dinner and he needed to take care of a few things before he got roped into retelling his life story to them. He told his father he was going to the park to try out Zac's present, but he had other things on his mind.

He didn't know what he expected Leigh-Ann's house to look like. When he walked up to the front door he expected to hear screaming and yelling inside. But everything was quiet. And the house looked the same as it always did. "Wait a minute, you idiot. You can't just knock on the front door," he said to himself.

He rounded the corner of the lawn and to the side of the house. "How do they do this in movies?" He scanned the windows. "Gosh, which one is hers?" He was so busy trying to figure out the layout of the house that he failed to notice he was standing right in front of the window into the Miller's family room. When he finally looked down he saw Leigh-Ann and her mother sitting on the couch in front of their Christmas Tree. Leigh spotted him. Her mother saw the expression on her face and turned around.

"Oh, my gosh!" Taylor ducked behind a bush. "Oh, my gosh. Oh, man!" He looked down and realized that he had just knealt in the biggest puddle of mud. "This is not happening." He tried to wipe the grime off his cords. He heard the front door to the house open. "Uh oh."

Taylor started to crawl further behind the house, away from the footsteps coming towards him. "Wait. Why am I doing this? I have nothing to hide from. I didn't do anything wrong." He stopped and turned around. The footsteps got closer. "Well, maybe getting caught now wouldn't be a good thing." He started crawling away.

"Taylor!" He sat up when he heard a female whisper coming from behind him.

"Leigh-Ann?" he whispered back.

She caught up to him. "What happened to you." She stared at his mud-stained pants.

"I had a bad encounter with a bush. Does your mom know I'm here?"

Leigh-Ann helped him up. "No, I told her that I was itching to get outside because it's such a beautiful day. She didn't see you."

"Wanna go for a walk?" He gazed at her as if it was the first time he was seeing her. Her hair was swept up into a loose ponytail with curly tendrils framing her face. She was wearing a velvet green dress with spaghetti straps. He had never seen her look so delicate.

"Yeah, I would definately like that." She smiled up at him.

They walked along Bell's Bridge that overlooked the Brazos River. "How are your parents?"

"Tay, can we...can we not talk about that. I'm having a good time."

"Sure. Is your mom still insistent that we not see each other?"

"Tay."

"Sorry, just asking." Taylor grabbed her hand and pulled her up to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Taylor," she giggled. She smiled shyly and looked down.

"I don't want to be your friend anymore," he whispered.

Leigh-Ann looked back up, confused. "What?"

"I don't want to be just your friend. I know what your mom says but I've been thinking a lot about this and about you."

She tried to let his words soak in. Leigh-Ann had been waiting for this moment ever since she slammed into him while rollerblading 3 years ago. For that moment she forgot about her parents and everything else. "Taylor, I..."

"Wait." He smiled and blushed. "You know how in all those interviews they keep asking us if we have girlfriends?"

"Yeah?" She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I don't want to tell the truth anymore."

"You don't make a whole lot of sense Taylor Hanson."

"I wanna lie to them. I wanna tell them I don't have a girlfriend, and I want it to be a lie."

"You would lie for me?"

"Yeah. I would definately lie for you." He stroked her cheek.

"So does this mean that your my...boyfriend?"

Taylor laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing. I'm happy, I guess. Yeah, if you want to, then I'm your boyfriend."

"I want to. I really, really want to." Now it was her turn to blush. "Ooops."

"What?"

"I think I just sounded extremely desperate." They stood on the bridge for a moment staring at each other. "Well?"

"What?"

"Are you going to kiss me or not?"

"Geez! I was just waiting for the perfect moment. You know I'm getting used to this too."

Leigh-Ann pushed a piece of Taylor's hair behind his ears. He leaned down until his nose touched hers. He could hear her breathing. Her mouthed curled up into a slight smile before he finally reached her lips. They both closed their eyes. Taylor could hear the sounds of the water rushing in the river below and the mockingbird singing in a nearby tree. Everything about the moment seemed natural. Taylor pulled Leigh-Ann closer and leaned further down and into the kiss. His hand swept up from her waist and into her hair. She wrapped her entire arm around his neck and tiptoed to get closer to him. Taylor grabbed her waist again and this time lifted her off the ground. He kissed her once more before putting her down. She could barely feel the ground beneath her feet.

The two stood for a moment, their arms still wrapped around each other. It seemed forever before one of them spoke.

"This could get really complicated," Leigh-Ann whispered.

"I know. But let's not think about that now."

"So, what do you want to do now?" Leigh finally released her embrace on Tay and leaned over the bridge to stare at the water below.

"I dunno." He continued to gaze at her.

"Why are you staring at me? Do I have lipstick on my teeth?" She grinned to show him her teeth.

"No!" Tay laughed.

"Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason." He finally looked away. "Let's go...um...where can we go that nobody will find out we're together?"

"Gosh. I have no idea. We can't go to all the regular places. Word will get around to my older sister and I don't trust her to keep it quiet."

"My brothers would be quiet."

"You're brothers are cool. My sister has this mean streak that pops up at the most inopportune times." They started to walk back towards Leigh-Ann's house.

"Well, we could go to...my house. But not today."

"Why not?"

"Have you forgotten it's Christmas already?"

"Oh, yeah. We had the present thing. In fact, I think my Dad felt so guilty about yesterday that he's promising me this huge shopping spree. Like that can make up for anything." She looked down at her shoes. He grabbed her hand as they walked.

"Does he do that a lot?"

Leigh-Ann looked up at Tay. "You mean...are you asking me if he's a drunk?"

"Well, no, I'm not..."

"Yeah, he is," she blurted.

Taylor's heart sank and his throat tensed up. "I'm sorry," was all he could think to say.

"He's such a loser."

"Leigh-Ann, he's not a loser. He's sick."

"Whatever."

"Leigh..."

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" She squeezed his hand.

"Sure." He felt very uneasy about leaving things like that. But he figured that Leigh-Ann knew what was best...at least he hoped she did.

They stopped a block down from Leigh-Ann's house. "I better go the rest of the way alone. You know, so my mom doesn't see you."

"When can I see you again? How am I gonna get ahold of you? Will your mom let you take my phone calls?"

"I don't think so. But I'm working on her. I think she'll ease up a bit if I behave."

"Please behave then, girl." He grinned at her with his 'I-know-I'm-so-cute' smile.

"I will. So, um, boyfriend..." She started to laugh at her own clumsy words.

"Yes, girlfriend."

"I will call you then."

"Okay, girlfriend!"

"Okay, boyfriend!"

"You're weird."

"Oh, yeah, I'm the weird one...sure Tay. Keep telling yourself that and maybe one day you'll actually believe that you're not a complete weirdo."

"Isn't it weird..."

"Don't even try to break out into song." She continued to giggle as Tay kept on singing louder and louder. "You doofus, you'll annoy the whole neighborhood with your screetchy voice!"

At that comment Tay pumped up his volume and started singing 'We Will Rock You.' He moved around, dancing to the song as Leigh stood by hoping nobody would come out of their house to kill him. "Taylor!" she laughed.

"Okay, then! A classic Hanson melody! You have so many relationships..."

"No!" She placed her hand over his mouth but he continued to mumble 'Mmmbop's through her fingers. Finally, she grabbed his face and kissed him. "There! That should stop you," she said when she let him go.

"I'll never be able to sing 'Mmmbop' quite the same way again." He grinned.

"Just go home, Tay."

"Okay, but I was giving you a free concert." He grabbed her hand.

"Go home, Tay." She tried to pull free, tugging more for show than to get away.

"Okay. I'll go home and see my thousands of relatives that are probably dying to pinch my already chapped cheeks."

"Wait. I changed my mind."

"What?" Tay continued to laugh at his own crazy behavior.

"I don't want you to go yet." Leigh face transformed from bright to serious. "I don't want to go home yet."

"Leigh. I can't...I wish I could make things better but I can't." He hugged her and buried his face in her neck.

"I love you, Tay."

Taylor continued to hug her, but his expression changed. He still didn't know what to say when she said that to him. "Thanks," he finally muttered.

Luckily, Leigh-Ann was too caught up in the moment to notice his vague response. "I had a really great day. A really, really great day." The smile returned to her face. Taylor lightly kissed her one last time and let go of her.

"Don't forget to call me, 'kay?" he said as he walked away from her. She turned around and slowly meandered up her street the house.

They finally left each other. Taylor headed home to his family and a traditional Christmas dinner. Leigh-Ann headed back to her small house; her mom too tired to cook, her dad too buzzed to care.